Wny no backlinks from directories

I have had many websites over time. Many of them are still active even though they don't belong to me. Every time I built a website I have taken my time submitting to directories and search engines. What I  have never checked, until now, is whether any of those links are actually visible. So I tested one of the websites I've had on for about 2.5 years. I have personally submitted this website to a few hundred directories. Today I ran a search on Google, Bing and Yahoo. From all those submissions only Yahoo showed backlinks from two directories. One of them don't count as it's from my own directory. Which was only created about 2 weeks ago.
Does this mean that directories simply have a nofollow tag? If that is so I am pissed because I have paid for listings in some of those directories assuming that there will NOT be a nofollow tag.

No they are not nofollow. Directory links are worthless because google can understand that those links are not actual "votes" to your content. That's because directories don't have relevant content.

I have stoped submitting my sites to directories for at least 4 years and I have see no difference at all. If you need my opinion, try to get more bloggers write about you (and link you from content that is relevant to your site) and this way with less work you will have the same - or even better - results.

Thank You. I'll have to start working on that.

yahoo
dmoz
botw

would really bother with anything else except niche directories

What does it mean?

If you submit your site to some hiqh quality directory , it is useful,but now more and more directories site just waste your time.

This is one of the topics we often argue ith my friends who are doing SEO as well. some of them still believe in the power of directories but I personally believe they are not given that much worth anymore considering that the bots are now looking for sites with content.

Directory links are useful if they are coming from authority web directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Dir, Inktomi etc but if you are submitting in MFA directories then these links won't help you in improving your website ranking.

Don?t over hype your site as many directories frown upon this, but make it so that people want to click your link

.Make sure to vary your anchor text and descriptions. Don?t use the same anchor text and description for all of your directory submissions.  A good way to set up a red flag with Google is suddenly to gain a lot of links to your site with the exact same anchor text and the exact same surrounding text.

Ideally, all of your directory submissions should use unique wording. At least, have a bunch of versions of anchor text and descriptions that you use when submitting to directories.

Hope that will help!

Cheers!:)

I think only a little directory could get us backlinks or tarffic, you know when we submit our site to directory,they need auditing it,genearlly it need us 3 month,and we could not make sure it appear our site.So if you want to get backlinks, you could join in do follow forum,creat blogs.

Well by submitting to directories you are gaining new links. Directory submitted links are calculated as a back link and you can get more hits from directory links. Do submit niche directory for better result, and careful on submission guidelines of those directories.  But you need to be patient until you get high rank.

Is the link from these directories is a do-follow one.you may have submitted the links to the directories are following the nofollow perspective  and you dont gaint he backlink and the search engines will not consider it.

directories have a habbit of taking many months to accept you if they even do.

also nofollow links will still show in your yahoo link count, but when you check you will find they are useless.

mozilla have an addon to help you asses your links using yahoo

Because nowadays Directories have slowly started losing their worth :(

ah thanks for this information

i still think there is a place for directories, i have a list of 3000 directories, i always make a point of submitting new sites to them, if you go flat out you can do 100 + per day and you will end up with loads of links

As you mention that you have paid for your listings in some of your directories. I don't think so that there will be nofollow tag in all those directories where you listed your site. From my experience, yahoo likes the paid listings while google likes free listings and just because of that reason, google did not show your backlinks.

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I only have Dmoz and yahoo directory in consideration and the rest seem to be worthless at all. But then again I still wonder how about those paid directories, are they nofollow also?If yes then I am just wasting my money.

You need to evaluate the value between some SEO techniques to optimize your time. Directory submission seem to be not good value. Of course having backlinks from DMOZ and some high PR, author Directory is good. That is it. Put more effort to get links from article, blog...etc.

 No. The directories don't have a no follow tag.

If the directories you submitted are high PR sites, they might help you in ranking. But generally, google pays little attention to those low PR sites nowadays.

You have to do large amount of submissions to see the result.

wow... thanks for this information..

As you mention that you have some paid listings in directories for your websites. As long as google concern, google did not like paid listings . So, it might be due to that reason the google did not show you a single backlink.

thanks for the ideas guys...
keep sharing...